Industrial robots of the above-mentioned type are previously known from published European Patent applications 0435 285 and 0489 168. A drawback with these designs is that the swing motion in the lateral direction of the upper robot arm is brought about by rotatably journalling the robot stand, in which the lower robot arms are mounted, in a robot foot. This means that the robot requires relatively large space in the lateral direction, which is a disadvantage especially in such applications where it is desired to place several robots side-by-side to simultaneously carry out, for example, welding operations on an assembly line for manufacturing car bodies. Another drawback with these designs is that the upper robot arm is one-sidedly journalled, which is less suitable considering the stability and load-handling capacity of the robot.
It is also known, for example from published European patent application 0361 140, to design the upper robot arm pivotable in the lateral direction without the robot stand having to be pivotable. Hitherto known robot designs of this type, however, have a relatively limited operating range, since the upper robot arm cannot be pivoted in a vertical plane upwards/backwards. Therefore, such a robot cannot be used, for example, for fetching objects or carrying out operations on the rear side of the robot.